Long Now

“Civilizations with longer nows look after things better.”

— Brian Eno Cofounder

We believe a world that operates at the timescale of civilization — a world that takes the long-term past and long-term future seriously — would operate very differently.

Its inhabitants would plan differently, decide differently, build differently, and imagine differently. This world would run on a culture of expansive thinking — across timescales, across sectors, and across traditional lines of thinking.

Everyone in this world would find themselves in the middle of the story of civilization.

Everyone in this world would understand themselves as someone else’s ancestor.

Everyone in this world would remember that they are part of something larger than themselves.

Together, they — we — would form a civilization of good ancestors.

Our highest hope is that the next generations will never doubt that we thought of them and built for them.

They will simply see this as normal human behavior.

Will you join us?

Become a supporting member

“Nobody can save the world, but any of us can help set in motion a self-saving world.”

— Stewart Brand Cofounder

The Long Now Foundation is a globally-recognized champion of long-term thinking and responsibility, operating within the context of the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.

The face of a 10,000-year clock

We produce audacious projects that ignite cultural imagination including the 10,000-year clock, an immense mechanical monument designed to keep accurate time for the next ten millennia.

Brian Eno’s Ambient Painting #1 at The Interval

We offer civilization-scale ideas from the ancient past and distant future of the present moment through our Long Now Talks lecture series, Long Now Ideas digital publication, and Pace Layers print journal, all out of The Interval at Long Now, our award-winning bar, café, and exhibit space, and event venue in San Francisco.

Founded in 01996 by Stewart Brand, Danny Hillis and Brian Eno, we are a nonprofit cultural institution with a mission to foster long-term thinking and responsibility.

Stewart Brand created the revolutionary do-it-yourself publication The Whole Earth Catalog in 01968. Steve Jobs famously called it “Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google existed.”

Explore the archive

Stewart Brand’s 01999 book, The Clock of The Long Now, is a kind of founding manifesto for The Long Now Foundation, building on ideas from Danny Hillis’s essay “The Millennium Clock” and Brian Eno's essay "The Big Here and The Long Now."

Buy the book

We Are As Gods offers a deep dive into the many sides of Stewart Brand — creator of The Whole Earth Catalog, an influential member of Ken Kesey’s “The Merry Pranksters,” founder of the modern environmental movement, and Long Now cofounder.

Watch the trailer

Eno is a groundbreaking documentary about visionary musician, artist, and Long Now cofounder Brian Eno that reinvents itself with generative algorithms for every screening, creating 52 quintillion possible permutations.

Watch the trailer